April 2017

Google’s Product Listing Ads (PLAs) have been given a makeover. The new style is a carousel that divides products by the company selling them, rather than the usual unsorted PLAs we had grown used to.

The thumbnail shows various products but the ads only list the companies and not individual products.

AdWords introduces new ‘Smart’ display ad campaigns powered by AI

Google AdWords has started rolling out Smart display campaigns to all advertisers. According to the AdWords blog post, smart display campaigns use the power of Google’s machine learning to automatically:

Connect your business to prospective customers who may be interested in your products, using insights from millions of apps and sites.

The AdWords post states that ‘’advertisers who use smart display campaigns are seeing an average 20% increase in conversions at the same CPA, compared to their other display campaigns.’’

Trivago, is the travel brand used in the example and is using Smart display campaigns to ‘’help travellers around the world find hotel rooms that meet all their travel needs – like a room large enough for a family of four, one with hi-speed Wi-Fi for a business trip, or one with an ocean-front view for that well-deserved vacation’’. The travel brand provided:

Creative assets: headlines like ‘’Find Great Hotel Deals,’’ descriptions of its hotel listings, images of destinations like Rome, and its logo.

The business goal which was a target CPA and daily budget.

With this information, AdWords created over 25,000 tailored ads which were shown to travellers shopping for hotel deals.

Page feeds give you additional control over your DSA campaigns to ensure only relevant products and services are shown to your customers. You simply provide AdWords with a feed of what you want to promote and select the landing pages that you want to include in your auto targets. This information is used to determine when your ads will show and where to direct your customers to on your website. It’s also possible to apply custom labels in your page feeds to keep your ads organised. For example, create a label called ‘’Holiday Promotion’’ and apply it to a group of products to easily activate and pause all ads within that promotion at the same time. Mark out of stock products with an ‘’Unavailable’’ label to prevent driving traffic to them.

Earlier this year, AdWords introduced Search and Display campaigns to expanded text ads. It’s now been announced that DSA campaigns will be transitioned to the expanded format. This means longer headlines and description lines which will allow you to show more information about your business before people click your ad.

Th quality enhancement update means that AdWords are improving the effectiveness of their DSA campaigns to ensure that your ads only show when they’re most relevant to what people are searching for. For example, ‘’if you’re a baker in Palm Springs, your ads should only show to people who are looking for baked goods in Palm Springs’’.

“Style Ideas” added to Google image search

Google has announced a new feature within Google image search to find ‘’style ideas’’ based on image searchers you do.

According to Google’s blog post ‘’image search is full of pics to help you find inspiration – whether it’s places to travel, items to purchase or shots of your favourite celebs, art and memes. But when it comes to fashion it’s hard to know where to start. That’s why we’re introducing a new feature called ‘style ideas’ in the Google app for Android and mobile web, which will surely help boost your search style IQ. Now while perusing fashion product images, Image Search will surface a grid of inspirational lifestyle images and outfits that showcase how the product can be worn in real life.’’

In addition to this, an expanded carousel for ‘similar items’ will be viewable while searching for clothing products. Google says ‘’whether you’re researching shorts and sneakers or checking out sunglasses and handbags, you’ll be able to find product offerings that may suit your tastes. Uncovering a bargain option without sacrificing style in now accessible right from Image Search.’’

Mobile Site Certification launched by Google Partners

Google Partners has launched their . According to Google ‘’the mobile sites exam covers basic, technical and advanced concepts, including best practices for creating, managing, measuring, and optimising mobile sites. We recommend that you have on-the-job experience creating mobile sites to increase your chances of passing.’’

The Certification program involves a 65-question multiple choice, true/false exam. You’ve got 90 minutes to do and require and 80% grade in order to pass.

Google has added a new location to submit URLs to their index

You’re now able to submit URLs to the Google index directly in the core Google search results page. To do this, simply search for [submit URL to Google] and Google will display a box at the top of the search results that enables you to submit a URL to Google’s index.

This tool allows you to submit any URL you want to the Google index. It will then be reviewed by Google and it will decide to index the URL and show it in their search results.

This functions the same as the public submit URL form tool but places it directly as an interactive answer directly in the search results.

Four New Features Added to Google My Business Dashboard

Google My Business’ dashboard has been given some great new updates. *Not everyone has access to these new insights yet.

Return Customers and Popular Times: Google My Business is now reporting on the amount of returning customers to a business, and the most popular times of a business. You can now see stats and data on the number of customers who have returned to your business up to 10+ times. Google will also show you your busiest times of day.

Link to Your Restaurant’s Menu: Google My Business now allows you to add a link to your restaurant’s menu directly from within the Google My Business Dashboard.

Link to Your Services Menu: Similar to the menu option, Google will now allow you to add a link to your services page directly within the Google My Business Dashboard.

18 Months of Insights Data to Download: This feature allows anyone with a bulk account or single account to download up to 18 months of insights data into a spreadsheet for easier use. This data includes phone call actions, website actions, total searches, direct searches, directions actions, maps views, and total views.

Automatic translations coming to Google reviews.

Google will now automatically translate all Google Reviews into the native language of the user. This move by the company Is making it easier for you to travel and safely pick businesses to solicit.

On this update, Google said ‘’when you’re travelling somewhere new, two of your biggest challenges can be figuring out where to go and understanding the native language of wherever you are. The next time you’re in a foreign place and want to check out a restaurant or point of interest, Google will translate the review into language you’ve set on your device.

The best part is that you don’t have to do a thing. Just open Google Maps or Search, search for what you’re interested in and the reviews are automatically translated. Most people will see the translated review in the language they prefer and then see the review in the native language below – eliminating the hassle of copying and pasting into a translation app or trying to decipher reviews using your pocket-sized translation book.’’

Trusted stores program replaced with customer reviews by Google

The Google Trusted Stores program is being replaced by Google Customer Reviews.

According to the AdWords blog the new program is designed to ‘’receive and share customer feedback while earning seller ratings’’.

Google says ‘’Google Customer Reviews offers more ways to customise the Google badge and opt-in on your site, better account management tools that save your time, and new insights into your seller rating.

With Google Customer Reviews, you can collect valuable reviews about your business for free. After you sign up and complete the brief setup process, customers who make a purchase on your site can opt-in to receiving an email survey to rate their buying experience. The reviews collected will contribute to your seller rating, which represents aggregated consumer reviews from multiple sources, including independent data providers and our own Google surveys.’’

To enable Google Customer Reviews:

Sign in to your Merchant Centre Account (if you don’t have an account, sign up for one).

Select ‘’Merchant Centre Programs’ from the dropdown in the upper right-hand corner.

Click ‘Get Started’ in the Google Customer Reviews card and accept the Program Agreement.

Add the survey opt-in code to your website.

[Optional] Add the badge code to your site, allowing you to display your seller rating and show customers that you’re integrated with Google Customer Reviews.

Page Like call–to-action unit: Readers that ‘like’ publisher’s Page are eligible to receive updates and posts from that publisher in News Feed.

Facebook is also testing additional updates which include:

Testing Free Trial call-to-action unit: This is an easy way for people to sign up for a free trial to a publisher’s digital subscription through Instant Articles with a small group of publishers.

Testing Mobile App Install call-to-action unit: According to Facebook, many of their partners have asked for a way to drive adoption for their mobile apps. So, this week, an alpha test of new a Mobile App Install call-to-action unit was officially launched.

Snapchat releases new location-based ad product

In attempt to rival Facebook and Google’s ad platforms, Snapchat is launching a new location-based product that lets businesses see whether people go to stores after seeing advertisements.

The new ad product, Snap to Store, looks at the number of people who go to a store within one week of seeing one of Snap’s vertical-oriented mobile ads.

7-Eleven, Paramount Pictures and Wendy’s were among the first brands to test Snapchat’s Snap to Store measurement tool that tracks the number of people who use Snapchat in a brand’s physical location, like a store or restaurant.

Snapchat can only tell if someone visited a brand’s location if that person uses Snapchat in that location. The company is not tracking people’s location when the app is running in the background.

LinkedIn introduces lead gen ad offerings

LinkedIn has launched LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms, a solution which according to their blog ‘’helps you drive even more high-quality leads from your Sponsored Content campaigns by removing the main barrier to mobile conversion – making someone complete a clunky contact form on a smartphone’’.

The lead gen forms will make it easy to collect leads from the nearly 500 million professionals, influencers, and business decision-makers who use the platform. When members click on one of your ads, their LinkedIn profile information automatically populates an in-app form that they can submit instantly – without having to type in their info by hand.

Once someone submits a Lead Gen Form, you’ll get a comprehensive lead record that can include that person’s name and contact info, company name, seniority, job title, location, and more. After form submission, you can present members with an in-app ‘’thank you’’ page that immediately connects them with your content or send them to your site to learn more.

Three Rules for Content Marketing in The Fake News Era

In this post, Contently’s Joe Lazauskas outlines the content marketing rules we need to follow in an era of fake news. They include no more unbranded microsites, acknowledging your bias, and practicing the tenets of good reporting. Read the full post here.

30 Habit of Highly Productive Content Teams

In this post, Content Marketing Institute’s Marcia Riefer Johnston discusses the habits a successful content marketing teams should have. The post, which includes an infographic, takes us through 30 habits of highly productive content teams. Read the full post here.

The 6 Most Important Social Media Trends 2017

In this post, Dillon Baker outlines 2017’s social media trends that marketers need to watch out for. Read the full post here.

The Difference Between Link Building and Digital PR

In this post, Branded 3 PR Executive Rebecca Hayler, explains the differences between link building and digital PR. Areas that are similar but require very different practices. Read the full post here.

Avoid These Common PPC Shopping Strategy Mistakes

In this post, Kelsey Hadaller [Account Manager at Hanapin Marketing] discusses PPC shopping strategy and mistakes to avoid. Read the full post here.

Study: Native Ads Beat Display for Driving Visits to Physical Stores

A study by native ad platform Sharethrough and location analytics provider Placed found that native ads are more efficient in driving traffic into physical stores than display ads. See the complete findings here.

3XE Digital

When: Wednesday May 17th 2017, 9am – 6pm

Where: Croke Park, Dublin.

About: 3XE returns to Croke Park for the second time this year. The May event focuses on Content, Inbound and Social Media Marketing. This one-day conference includes 16 talks, 20 speaks and 6 workshops.

Price: Tickets start at €295.00. For more information visit the 3XE Digital website.

Social Media Masterclass from SocialMedia.ie

About: SocialMedia.ie is hosting a hands-on workshop designed to bring you up to date with the latest developments and trends in social media. It will include an overview of the various social media channels, methods of enhancing your online presence and generate new business, recommended tools and social media examples related to different industries.

Price: €84.59.

Bloggerconf

When: Saturday May 20th 2017, 9am-4pm

Where: The Round Room, Mansion House, 2 Dawson Street, Dublin.

About: Ireland’s leading conference for bloggers, digital creatives and influencers. It features talks and masterclasses from industry experts.

Price: Tickets range from €49.99 – €350. Visit the website for full details.

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